


The Chain

by MrAdequateBar



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: .....yea, AU sorta where they fight IT without Stan the first time and it goes...bad, Angst, Canonical Character Death, Gen, i guess, remember how Stan was always sick as a kid???
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-10
Updated: 2020-01-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:27:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22192516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrAdequateBar/pseuds/MrAdequateBar
Summary: and if you don't love me nowthen you'll never love me againi can still hear you sayingyou would never break the chain- the chain, fleetwood mac
Relationships: Beverly Marsh & Everyone
Kudos: 2





	The Chain

_And if you don’t love me now_

_Then you’ll never love me again_

_I can still hear you saying_

_You would never break the chain_

Her fingers fumbled around the loose braid in her hair, trying to make it look presentable- she knew her father would have a fit if she looked anything less than perfect- his little girl, all dressed in white, perfect to anyone who would look her way.

But Beverly considered herself to be anything but perfect, she thought she was a rebel, a tomboy who didn’t follow anyone’s rules.

Beverly Marsh was the kid who came to school with the flu just to “accidentally” cough on her math homework to get their teacher to be out of class, who vandalized the girl’s bathroom with kiss marks from lipstick she stole from the drugstore.

Even if she wasn’t as bad as she may have thought she was, Beverly was a force to be reckoned with. 

They held a moment of silence in school that morning, for the kid who died over the weekend. The water from the fountain was pinkish, and the big tall middle schoolers that tried to peek up Beverly’s skirt when she walked home refused to drink it because they swore it was his blood, and they weren’t drinking no Jew’s blood. Which was funny to think about the way they said it. Would they drink a Christian’s blood? Or a Muslim’s?

She saw Stanley occasionally when walking down the hall, but she only ever saw him. She’d never heard his voice except for when he did the weekly news broadcast with the rest of the A/V club. During the rest of the day she saw him but couldn’t hear him over the sound of his four-eyes best friend who couldn’t seem to shut up for the life of him.

Richie was quiet today, however. Even though everyone knew that Stanley died from a sickness, the middle schoolers demanding that the pink in the water was his blood because he slit his wrists in the bathtub must’ve been beating down on him.

He sat alone during lunch hour. He must’ve had other friends, Beverly was sure- someone so loud couldn't have only had one friend. Regardless, she could tell he was lonely. Something in Beverly told her not to do anything about it, but she didn't know what. But being the person she was, Beverly couldn't stand someone being lonely.

“May I sit?” Beverly asked.

Richie looked up. Sure enough, his eyes were red tinted, like he’d been crying, and the large glasses that magnified his eyes didn't help.

“Sure, ma! Just don't let the rat kaboom you on tha way down!” He cheered in a goofy voice, giggling while his cheeks went red.

Beverly sat next to him and said nothing for a minute while she pulled out her lunch sack. She noticed Richie didn't have anything.

“Do you want some of my apple slices?” She asked, honestly trying to help.

“No thank you ma, me mother tells me not to take food from strangers!” He said, obviously not sincere, because he accepted one of them.

“But we’re not strangers.” Beverly said as it came back to her why there was a pinch of guilt when she saw Richie at first.

It all started in third grade, when Beverly moved to Derry and had no friends- three kids in the back of the class immediately adopted her into their loud group. There was the Richie “Trashmouth” Tozier, Stuttering Bill Denbrough, and Eddie Meddie Kaspbrak.

They were loud, that was for sure, but Beverly didn't mind, and she learned their habits by observing and participating when she felt like it.

She noticed that Bill stuttered a lot more after his brother, George, went missing, and well- she wouldn't know now. After they found Georgie’s body Bill’s parents took him out of school and sent him to the Baptist school at the old church on Neibolt Street- cause there were less people. He didn't talk to them much anymore- he’d wave when he passed them by, but soon caught up to his friend that Beverly only knew as the only black boy in Derry.

Things didn't get better after Bill left. She noticed that when Richie was loud and doing one of his Voices he was probably nervous about something or uncomfortable, and she tried her best to pull him out of it, but sometimes there was just no avail.

Things fell apart after Field Day, when she and Eddie kissed on the running track and Richie started doing his Voices nonstop- pretty soon he started avoiding Beverly and Eddie altogether, and that's how he became friends with Stanley.

“Right. Of course.” Richie said, smirking. He dropped his voice and genuinely smiled at Beverly, something she was grateful for.

They sat in awkward silence, watching everyone around them run and yell and play, the events of the weekend nothing but a passing event in their minds.

“I'm sorry about Stanley.” Beverly finally said.

Richie sighed. “I am too. Son of a bitch was my only friend. Not like there's anything I could've done to fix it though.” He finished, shoving another apple slice in his mouth angrily.

Beverly wanted to say “I'm sorry for everything” but she didn't know how. It would just seem weird and desperate especially to someone like Richie.

“Sounds like you're not all that sad.” Beverly said. _Why did she say that?!_

“I'm not. I'm angry.” Richie said. Beverly had never heard him use so little words before, and that's how she _knew_ something was wrong.

\---

“I told you I didn't have a good feeling about it.”

“W-well what that f-f-f-fuck were we supposed to d-do about it? We couldn't have t-told just anyo-one.”

“Maybe we could’ve not done it at all. And then one of us wouldn't be dead.”

Richie and Bill were arguing. _Again._

Beverly wondered if maybe Richie’s crazy theory about having seven people could be the reason things turned out the way it did that day.

Richie was so keen on “the power of Seven” but they’d never had seven members to begin with. There was Richie, and Bill, and Beverly, and Eddie, who by some graces of God had reunited without killing each other- well, until Richie punched Bill, and then… and there was also Ben Hanscom, who spent all his time at the library but Beverly knew because he once gave her an eraser during class and Beverly was absolutely flattered. There was Mike Hanlon, too, Bill’s school friend who’d experienced things like them. Experienced It.

That day, six kids went into the sewers and only five came out, and that was also the day that Richie Tozier threw his glasses into the rushing water of the creek, not caring that his mom would scream at him later.

She sat to herself and put on her best black dress her mom had bought for her and pulled the brush through the auburn curls.

She didn't know if any of the other Losers would show up. None of them had come to Stanley’s funeral- she sat on the edge of the quarry with Richie, reconnecting and smoking cigarettes Richie’d bought with money from months of mowing his parents’ lawn.

Now she pulled a sleek black headband through her hair and prepared to go to the funeral for the kid she got yelled at for kissing on the courtyard in third grade.

She knew his mother would try to kick him out- if there was one person that truly hated Beverly, it was Sonia Kaspbrak; she claimed that Beverly ruined her little Eddie’s life. And Beverly would only expect as much of Sonia as to freak out on Beverly, even if it made a scene at her own son’s funeral.

Even if it was her fault. Somewhat. She was the one who first followed Bill into the stupid sewers, she was the one who held Eddie’s hand and told him he was going to be okay, so he believed her and they went into the sewers down below and Eddie didn't know that he shouldn't have trusted her, he shouldn't have let her tell him it was going to be okay when it _wasn't._

Beverly was crying now. Maybe Richie wasn't crazy about saying they needed to go to fight It with seven people. They went in with six and it killed Eddie, It fucking killed Eddie, and she was the one who called Richie crazy and said they’d be fine, the six of them were fine, nothing would hurt them.

She tried to stop crying, looking at the Polaroid picture she’d taken the day before they decided to take on It. Six kids smiling and looking more delighted than ever. But her mother’s voice rang through soon enough and Beverly stood, brushing herself off and left hastily, the picture fluttering down to the carpet below before settling on a spot just sticking out from under her desk.

_Listen to the wind blow_

_Down comes the night_

_Running in the shadows_

_Damn your love, damn your lies_

_Break the silence_

_Damn the dark, damn the light_

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this a while ago and i just found it and decided to upload it  
> ....sorry about this. i looked back on my 'changes made' thing and i first wrote this a few weeks after my 17th birthday which was,,,,not a great time. but hey i'm turning 18 in a month so let's turn up heyyyyy


End file.
